Copyright Friendly Resources

Teachers are often frustrated by the difficulty finding legally appropriate resources for school projects. What's OK to use, what's not? Two areas where you can feel confident using the resources are when they're in the Public Domain or when they are covered by a Creative Commons license:

Public Domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

Creative Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_commons

Copyleft (as opposed to Copyright; get it?): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

This is a great resource if you're looking for what teachers can and can't do legally:

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/code_for_media_literacy_education/

This is a 2 page chart that was designed to inform teachers of what they may do under the law concerning copyright and fair use practices regarding many different mediums. For more information on this topic you can also go to:
http://www.techlearning.com/section/Copyright.

Many teachers think that so long as the content says Royalty Free, they're good to go. This is not the case. Royalty Free means that once you license use (almost always for money), you can use the media over and over again without paying a royalty (fee) for each usage. This kind of license is typically cheaper than a rights-managed license, but the rights-managed license is usually more exclusive (so it's less likely your competitor is less likely to be using the same piece of media). For a more detailed discussion see this:

You may also find more here. Be sure to read about licensing to be sure: